Born in Sunderland, Tyne-and-Wear, England, and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, Roëves (pronounced Row-EAVES) has appeared in more than eighty films and television shows, including such varied works as Danger UXB (with Judy Geeson), Baywatch, Beautiful Creatures, Doctor Who, Days of Our Lives, The Eagle Has Landed, Cheers, and Judge Dredd (1995, alongside Adrienne Barbeau, Joanna Miles, and Mitchell Ryan). Roëves, who is highly recognizable for his prominent teeth and intense acting style, has the dubious distinction of having played both Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess on television, but is probably best known for his role as Colonel Munro in Michael Mann's 1992 Last of the Mohicans which also featured TNG recurring performer and DS9 lead Colm Meaney. He later co-starred with Meaney again in 2009's The Damned United.

Early in his career, Roëves played the key role of Stephen Dedalus in Joseph Strick's 1967 film adaptation of James Joyce's Ulysses. On stage he has performed in Shakespeare's Macbeth, Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, Erik Jendresen's The Killing of Michael Malloy, and many others, and has worked with Alec Guinness, Richard Harris, and Albert Finney. Though he claims to keep a "low profile" in the United States, Roëves had this to say of his brief but striking role in TNG:

"In Star Trek, this particular speech by Romulan, I think was his name, was kind of like a... almost Human and they couldn't get anyone to do his speech properly and they asked, 'Can you do it?' and I said, 'Yes'... so they paid me top money. It was a piece of cake."

In 1979 Roëves played a small part in the British movie S.O.S. Titanic, with Ian Abercrombie. Another notable role was in the 1982 British action movie Who Dares Wins starring Lewis Collins and Edward Woodward. Roëves also played supporting roles in the biblical films Moses and David. In Moses (1995) he played alongside DS9 star Frank Langella, and two years later, in 1997, his partner in David was TOS star Leonard Nimoy.